Change in Society

Everything in the world changes sooner or later. Greek Philosopher, Heraclitus, is famous for making the statement, “The only permanent thing in the world is change”.



*Fashion has always been around. Clothing and accessories have always been a part of and/or a way of life since the beginning of time. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, some body, somewhere, always finds a way to create a new fresh look that turns heads (LaEspinosast, Jose).


*William Shakespeare once commented, “Fashion wears out more apparel than the man” (Saige).



*Fashion has been influenced by many things, including War, conquests, laws, religion, arts, etc. As far as designers, their individual personality tend to impact fashion. Fashion designers have been accused of accelerating fashion change to create new business. Designers might design something and expect it to be a hit, but no fashion succeeds until people are ready to accept it. The final decision about what to buy, or whether to buy anything at all, belongs to the consumer. If the people don’t like it, they wont buy it, which means that that particular “style” wont be the new “fashion trend” (Saige).





*Music is one of the biggest things in the world that is constantly changing. There are thousands of different types of music, and each type is always getting a new “twist” for people to enjoy. Years ago, people were content with just a mandolin and a flute. Today, we have guitars, drums, pianos, tubas, etc. There are hundreds of genres of music (from tribal music, to expressing the hatred and sex in rap or rock music, to talking about the lonely nights with a bottle of Jack Daniels in a country song). Lyrics have an amazingly big impact on the music we listen to. Society has grown to want the bad language, the description of sex, the killing, and the drugs in music (msnbc).



*We feel the same about movies as we do for music. Years ago, all of the sex, all of the language, the drugs, was all a bit taboo. Today, when we go to the movies, most of the time it’s a movie that’s rated R, and we want the sex, the cussing, drug abuse, etc. A PG-13 movie today would be rated R a few years ago. We’ve become more accepting and wanting when it comes to movies, TV, or music.


- The same thing goes for today's advertisements. What is wrong with the advertisements on television these days? Turn the television on and see who and how these advertisements exploit. How has television advertisements changed over the
years?


- Everyone knows and loves it, more brands are using bold sexual content, or sex in general all the time. Virgin mobile is a brand that has used sexual tones for many things. It targets the youth and has been called “naughty.” Their commercials are unreal, such as one or two of their commercials are about a girl and her parents are worried to whether or not she likes girls over boys, the other commercial is a sex chat line! What are we accepting these days?



- As most consumers would say we are born to respond to sex, therefore that is why more sexual content is being put in more advertisements and making them grow. Today’s advertisements target the youth who are deceptive and also have a darker side to them. Teenagers continue to say one thing and do another. Everyone knows that using sexual terms is a really powerful way to communicate.

- Women are a big part of the exploitation in todays advertisements. Advertisements show women off in mainly two ways: as a motherly figure or as a sexual desire.“All women are vulnerable in a culture in which there is such a widespread objectifications of women’s bodies, such glorification of disconnection…when everything and everyone is sexualized, It is the powerless who are more at risk” (Ross)




- Men are usually advertised as being very strong, masculine, brave, and often rebellious.

- The television has changed so much over the years. Older shows such as: I Love Lucy and Dick Van Dyke were real popular shows, the actors and actresses were NOT allowed to share a bed. On those shows, any bedroom scene showed two twin beds with a night stand in the middle of them. Ladies were always dressed in dresses and pearls and men always wore suits and ties.



- In the new centuries like today, you never know what you will see on TV. We did not need parental guidance or locks on the channels either. It is extremely different now in television, back then you were not allowed to use profanity, now you never know what language that will be on these shows that people think are okay. Even commercials are unsuitable for children. The cartoons are even more for adults. While in the 70’s and 80’s shows had a message to deliver. Now in today’s society when a children’s cartoon plays, they are filled with violence and anger. They rarely ever teach a lesson, or a good one at that. The shows always have a motto of “every man for himself,” who wants their kids to be taught that? If the television is on, all that is usually seen on there is hate, violence, and vulgarity.



- Sexual advertisements are marketed more toward perfume labels and brands of lingere, nobody cares about that. The day that food and drinks used a sexual advertisement then people start to wonder if it is using sex in an unacceptable way. We have a nature towards sex and when we see a lingere advertisement using sexual imagery, it is alright. The same people who think those advertisements are alright are seeing the potato chip advertisements and wondering, “What were they thinking?” Sex should not be the main factor of advertising and marketing.

- Selling sex is something we see on a daily basis. Everyone at one point or another can relate to sex. Also everyone at some point have given in to a sexual advertisement. When a product is related to sex, it really does sell! The thing is that even if a product is not related to sex, any good marketer will turn it around and use it in a sexual advertisement. Each year more advertisers are jumping on the bandwagon for sex, and also becoming more risqué. Two major marketers are using sex and people notice. They are Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch.



- Society has changed teenagers and they are becoming “naïve consumers.” If a teenager sees something on the television they are more likely to be subjected to it, such as drinking, smoking, and having sex. Why are we letting our influential minds control us? When society and advertising changed for the worse, we went down with it.

*As Technology changes, so does the government in order to either use it, or keep society in order. Invention of the telephone, computer, car, airplane, space shuttle, etc, are all what caused the creation of the different branches of the government; Examples: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC, founded in 1934), The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA founded in 1958), and NASA (also founded in 1958). Even the recent invention of digital television forced the FCC to rule that all television stations must transmit digitally by June 12, 2009 (Publishing, Wiley).

*According to two new studies published in “Nature” magazine, the words used the most in everyday language, are the ones evolving or changing the slowest over the years (Swaminathn, Nikhil).

Researchers of Harvard University and University of Reading in England combined their research/data and determined that it would take as little as 750 years to replace less-used words and up to 10,000 years for new words to evolve in place of the most frequently used ones (Swaminathn, Nikhil).
Erez Lieberman, co-author of the studies, stated, “ By being more frequent, a verb is more stable”. In other words, the more a word is used in everyday language, the more ampt it is to stick around longer throughout the years.
*Technology has changed vastly throughout the years. Computers literally run the world; we use them for everything. Years ago, before computers were as advanced as they are today, some people thought that the idea of a computer was insane. Here are some comments that these people made:
• “Computers in the future may weigh no more than one and a half tons” – Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless March of Science, 1949.
• “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home” – Ken Olson, President/ Chairman/Founder of digital Equipment Corp. 1977.
• “The Radio craze will die out in time” – Thomas Edison, 1922.






Just over a hundred years ago, the light bulb was invented. Today, we have cars, airplanes, cell phones, computers, etc (history.com).







Change in Society is amazing. If we have accomplished this much in such a short amount of time, imagine what the world could look like in another hundred years from now.





Resources
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Keister, Lisa. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Dec2009, Vol. 26 Issue 4, p719-742, 24p; DOI: 10.1007/s10490-008-9113-4; (AN 44917257)


LaEspinosast, Jose. "Changes in Style and Changes in Fashion." (2007): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2009. .


Lindblom, Charles. “Inquiry & Change: The Troubled Attempt to Understand & Shape Society” (Jul 1992): n pag. Book. 12 Nov 2009. Yale University Press.


Mahoney, Nicole. “Language Change.” (2008): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2009. http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/change.jsp


Press, Associated. "Dirty song lyrics can prompt early teen sex." Msnbc (2008): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2009. .


Publishing, Wiley. “What Changes in American Society Have Created New Issues for the Government to Address?” (2009): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2009.


http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/Section/What-changes-in-American-society-have-created-new-issues-for-the-government-to-address-.id-305401,articleId-106543.html


Saige,. "Fashion Changes Through Time." (2008): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2009. .


Swaminathn, Nikhil. “Use It or Lose It: Why Language Changes over Time.” Scientific American. N pag. Web. 12 Nov 2009. http://www.scientificamerican.com/aritcle.cfm?id=use-it-or-lose-it-why-lan


“Technology and Change.” Quotes from American Leaders. (1996): n. pag. Book. 12 Nov 2009. http://nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/tnc.html


“The Invention of the Light bulb.” http://www.history.com/video.do?name=modernmarvels


Walling, William. "Sexology." (2009): n. pag. Book. 12 Nov 2009.